Method of producing sculptures.



G.ERDBRUEGGER. METHOD OF PRODUCING SOULPTURES. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 7,1910.

972,174; Paiiented 0011.11, 1910.

THE NORRIS'PETERS ca., WASHINGTON. 0y 5y UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GUSTAV ERDIBRUEGGER, 0F ANDERTEN, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO RELIEFOGRAPI-ICOMPANY, A. CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

METHOD OF PRODUCING SOULPTURES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 11, 1910.

Original application filed March 8, 1910, Serial No. 548,083. Dividedand this application filed June 7, 1910. Serial No. 565,604.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GUSTAV ERDBRUEGGER, a subject of the German Emperor,residing at Anderten, in the Province of Hanover, in Germany, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of ProducingSculptures, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention pertains to a method of producing positive andnegative sculptures from photographs, designs, engravings or pictures ofany kind, and is a division from the application, Ser. #548,083, filedMarch 8, 1910.

The object of my invention is to provide a method of producingsculptures from photographs, etc., that will not only assist the artist,but enable even laymen to produce sculptures of artistic finish,speedily and cheaply, and will also serve as a means of instruction.Owing to the simplicity of the method, the same may be utilized invarious branches of industry, as for instance, metal, porcelain, glass,stoneware, stucco, wall paper, celluloid, chocolate, etc.

Reference is had to the accompanying drawing, in which similar referenceletters denote corresponding parts and in which Figure 1 shows aplurality of stencils and the elastic base in perspective view; Fig. 2 across section on line 22 of Fig. 1 and Fig. 3 a front view of thefinished sculpture.

My method consists in that a picture 6, photograph, design, engraving,etc., made on flexible material, as, for instance, paper, linen or thelike, is suitably fastened between two stencils a, b of non-flexiblematerial, which stencils are previously prepared, so that their cut outportions register with one another and with a portion of the picture,etc., which is to appear in relief. The thus mounted photograph, etc.,is placed face upward over a base 0 of elastic material, as, forinstance, a rubber sheet and is suitably fixed in position relativethereto. The

picture is then impregnated or dampened with a suitable substance asglycerin, or the like, to make it more flexible and to allow of it beingpressed through the stencils. Then a mass 03 of suitable plasticmaterial, as clay, or the like, which is easily moldable and at the sametime rapidly stifiens, is placed between the elastic base and the thusprepared and mounted photograph, etc., so that the material will causethe dampened part of the portrait or design to protrude forward throughthe stencils. I have found the following composition to give the mostadvantageous results: A suitable quantity of pounce, mixed withpulverized blue slate earth, pulverized clay, pulverized hemp, in lukewarm water and dissolved lime. According to his artistic taste andfollowing the shade lines on the picture, the manipulator then workswith his fingers on the elastic base and presses the plastic material soas to bring forward parts of the face, figure, costume, etc., more orless prominently, as may be required. From above, on the other hand, thedetailed molding of the various minuter parts may be accomplished by aproper instrument.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

The herein described method, consisting in first preparing a system ofmasks or stencils'of the picture, design, etc., fixing the picturebetween said stencils, impregnating or dampening the picture with afluid capable of rendering it more flexible or elastic,

then placing a plastic mass between the thus mounted picture and anelastic base, and treating the said mass by pressing against the saidelastic base.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GUSTAV ERDBRUEGGER. Witnesses: J. M. Bowcoox,

M. BEHNE.

